Ubisoft: Assassin's Creed 2 is 'awesome' -- there's no room for bad games

Fittingly, there is only one big-name, multiplatform game comfortable in the shadow of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's release next month: Assassin's Creed 2. While it's not the only game willing to test its selling power against the potential "bestselling title of all time" -- Left 4 Dead 2 seems aptly titled; and New Super Mario Bros. Wii should collect coin on its platform -- Assassin's Creed 2 is easily November's second-most significant multi-console release.

When pressed for comment about AC2 going up against MW2 and the possibility of his game (ha!) surpassing Infinity Ward's shooter in sales, Yannis Mallat, CEO of AC2 developer Ubisoft Montreal, admitted to VideoGamer.com that he was not "pretentious" enough to predict a sales outcome, but added, "I can certainly say there is no room any more for average or bad games, but there is still a lot of room for awesome games, and that's what Assassin's Creed is."

Internally, Ubisoft has set its standards high -- two years ago, the first Assassin's Creed moved 2.5 million units in its first month at retail to become the fastest-selling new game IP in U.S. history. Of course, two years ago, Call of Duty 4 was claiming records of its own. Ubisoft would not dare pit AC2 against MW2 in an outright sales challenge, but, in embodying its franchise's ethos, with a little patience, Ubisoft will almost certainly enjoy successful sales of AC2 over the course of the holiday season. After all, who among us has ever been content to settle on just one awesome game when there are many to enjoy?

Ubisoft isn't messing about with Assassin's Creed 2 as US ratings board ESRB highlights sex scenes and some pretty lairy language in the stealth sequel.

"The game contains strong sexual overtones," says ESRB. "During one 'seduction mini-game,' players are able to press buttons to kiss a woman and remove her dress; with the woman's back facing the camera, the two characters lower to bed and blow out a candle," it describes, adding that some scenes take place in brothels.

"The dialogue contains the following sexual references: 'So the whip or the paddle today?' and 'Does your wife know about your page-boy fantasies, Captain?'"

"Consumers may also wish to know that the game contains strong profanity, both in English and Italian (e.g., 'f**k,' 'sh*t,' c*zzo,' and 'm*rda'); the most explicit instance occurs when a man frantically describes a 'vision'-'I'm at the opera . . . the soprano is so beautiful . . . I'm in bed with her, she cries as I f**k her.'"

I'm not gonna post the review from Eurogamer as it will no doubt include a few spoilers, so i just clicked on the last page & scrolled down to the summary, which you can see below.

Ubisoft Montreal has never been afraid to try new things, but after a few missteps with games like last year's Prince of Persia, perhaps the bravest thing it could have done with Assassin's Creed II was simply to make a classic open-world adventure, filled to the brim with things you want to do and the narrative motivation to continue doing them. The fact it's done so suggests we really should trust the studio when it says it's taken its lesson, and fills me with hope for the third game in the trilogy. In the meantime, we not only have the Assassin's Creed game we'd hoped for in the first place to play with, but one of the best open-world games of the year.